Our Home At Tampines

[coffee_o 1]

yeah which block.

me is st 91 there....

my place is abit further from u guys.... at 700x series.. hehe..

rainbow, mine 800X, just a road across

Mine is at street 43, block 495F. The window besides the bed overlooks TPE and Pasir Ris. I'm a little bit concerned about the noise at night, and of course the air-con bill due to the enlarged MBR. One ID suggests building one more sliding door at the featured wall / TV console in the MBR, but that means we have to open 3 doors to go to the toilet in the middle of the night.

Than im the nearest to you .. Im at St 41, block 405.

opp library there...

Wah think we should have a gathering for all the easterners hahahaha

[lihsin 0]

cissern and ***** is more pricey right?

personally dun like those expo roadshow IDs.

Hi, we met the Ciseern ID to look at his quotation yesterday. It is indeed on the high side, though not the highest I have received. I think we will only take up Cissern if they can give a significant discount. We were supposed to meet the ***** ID yesterday too, but she was unwell so we will have to meet her tomorrow or the day after. Will keep you guys posted once we receive all the quotations by the end of this week

[zhiz 4]

Hi, we met the Ciseern ID to look at his quotation yesterday. It is indeed on the high side, though not the highest I have received. I think we will only take up Cissern if they can give a significant discount. We were supposed to meet the ***** ID yesterday too, but she was unwell so we will have to meet her tomorrow or the day after. Will keep you guys posted once we receive all the quotations by the end of this week

most likely they will tell you they use superior products etc thats why more ex. but we wouldnt really know how superior it is also

i think they are probably 5-10k more ex than what i spent based on quote i got.

[lihsin 0]

Hi all,

we still haven't confirmed the IDs but this is the design that we are most likely to take. There should be wardrobe and TV console in the MBR. We are thinking that the breakfast counter can be pushed out slightly to align with the wall so that there is more space for a bigger sofa. Any comments?

Edited November 22, 2009 by lihsin

[happypie 0]

welcome!! wow, i think a budget of $50 to $60k should be good enough for a nice makeover of the house..

hope u firm up ur ID soon and start the reno journey!

[hanni06 0]

hi there... i used to stay in the same designed unit over at st 32

[lihsin 0]

welcome!! wow, i think a budget of $50 to $60k should be good enough for a nice makeover of the house..

hope u firm up ur ID soon and start the reno journey!

Thanks happypie, I am about to confirm my ID, probably by Monday. So far the cheaper quotes are about 55k to 60k , while the highest go to 66k with some missing items. It is not easy to compare the prices because the materials used maybe different. Take carpentry for example, some use laminate finish, some use mirror with laminate finish, and I am not sure how much more expensive is the latter compared to the former. I am hoping that the ID with the design I like the most will give me a good final discount so that it will be a clear cut decision in the end

hi there... i used to stay in the same designed unit over at st 32

Oh really? What is a 'designed unit'? I don't think the current condition of the house look like a 'designed' unit

[TYM 0]

I would not want to stay in the maid's room.

[lihsin 0]

I would not want to stay in the maid's room.

I agree that it is too small, and I will ask the ID to increase its length and create a window for ventilation. Anyway, we don't have a maid yet, and if we do have one eventually, she will most probably stay in one of the bedrooms. The "maid's room" is created to provide more storage space and also to reduce the size of the kitchen so as to minimise cleaning work

[lihsin 0]

We have finally confirmed our ID . He is Kennedy Cheng of Earnest Interiors. Our search for ID was like many of yours - long and tiring. Earnest Interiors is the last ID firm we approached, and the reason why we even approached them was due to our colleague's strong recommendation. His house was done by James, one of the bosses of Earnest Interiors, and he found their quotation very reasonable and was very satisfied with Jame's service like many bloggers here. Back then, we haven't found the useful info in this blog yet, and we were thinking "no harm giving it a try". So we called James, and he referred us to his designer Kennedy Cheng. We had a good impression of Kennedy after our first meeting because he was able to come up with alternatives to our initial design on the spot. Two weeks later, we met him again and he presented to us a layout that included a large open kitchen. We like the idea, but thought that it may not be practical if eventually we want to do more cooking. So after some email discussions and visits, we agreed on the design posted above, with slight modifications. The reason why we choose Earnest Interiors and Kennedy over the rest of the IDs are:

1. They give us the best quotation.
2. Kennedy came up with the most creative layout.
3. Kennedy is very fast in his response to all my emails. That gives us the confidence that he will monitor our reno closely.
4. Earnest Interiors has very good reputation in this forum.

The other IDs we have approached are One Design Concept, ****, Ciseern and Orange Square^(3/2). There are 3 others that are not worth mentioning. For One Design Concept, we were served by a nice lady Ayu whom my WTB and myself both feel very comfortable talking to. She was our first choice initially, but her quotation is way beyond the rest and we have no choice but to drop her. Nevertheless, we really appreciate the time and effort she spent with us. We also talked to **** as we chanced upon some positive comments about them on this blog (some how we missed all those on Earnest ). We were served by Jimmy, a young, nice chap. The **** boss Zaidy proposed a layout which combined MBR with one bedroom so that we can build a WIW. We were quite keen in this layout and that's why it was included in my earliest posts. However, their quotation is a few thousands higher than that of Earnest's, and I still prefer the open kitchen concept. Again, we are thankful to Jimmy for his time and enthusiasm. As for Ciseern and Orange Square^(3/2), their quotations are also on the high side,and the IDs came up with layouts that are worse than our initial proposal, neglecting some of the requirements we have told them.

We haven't signed on the dotted line yet, because we are waiting for Kennedy to make some minor changes to the quotation. We will sign the agreement tomorrow. Finally, we can focus on our work for a short while . But we will be eagerly waiting for the 3D pics I guess.

[CJREDDEVIL 0]

We have finally confirmed our ID . He is Kennedy Cheng of Earnest Interiors. Our search for ID was like many of yours - long and tiring. Earnest Interiors is the last ID firm we approached, and the reason why we even approached them was due to our colleague's strong recommendation. His house was done by James, one of the bosses of Earnest Interiors, and he found their quotation very reasonable and was very satisfied with Jame's service like many bloggers here. Back then, we haven't found the useful info in this blog yet, and we were thinking "no harm giving it a try". So we called James, and he referred us to his designer Kennedy Cheng. We had a good impression of Kennedy after our first meeting because he was able to come up with alternatives to our initial design on the spot. Two weeks later, we met him again and he presented to us a layout that included a large open kitchen. We like the idea, but thought that it may not be practical if eventually we want to do more cooking. So after some email discussions and visits, we agreed on the design posted above, with slight modifications. The reason why we choose Earnest Interiors and Kennedy over the rest of the IDs are:

1. They give us the best quotation.
2. Kennedy came up with the most creative layout.
3. Kennedy is very fast in his response to all my emails. That gives us the confidence that he will monitor our reno closely.
4. Earnest Interiors has very good reputation in this forum.

The other IDs we have approached are One Design Concept, ****, Ciseern and Orange Square^(3/2). There are 3 others that are not worth mentioning. For One Design Concept, we were served by a nice lady Ayu whom my WTB and myself both feel very comfortable talking to. She was our first choice initially, but her quotation is way beyond the rest and we have no choice but to drop her. Nevertheless, we really appreciate the time and effort she spent with us. We also talked to **** as we chanced upon some positive comments about them on this blog (some how we missed all those on Earnest ). We were served by Jimmy, a young, nice chap. The **** boss Zaidy proposed a layout which combined MBR with one bedroom so that we can build a WIW. We were quite keen in this layout and that's why it was included in my earliest posts. However, their quotation is a few thousands higher than that of Earnest's, and I still prefer the open kitchen concept. Again, we are thankful to Jimmy for his time and enthusiasm. As for Ciseern and Orange Square^(3/2), their quotations are also on the high side,and the IDs came up with layouts that are worse than our initial proposal, neglecting some of the requirements we have told them.

We haven't signed on the dotted line yet, because we are waiting for Kennedy to make some minor changes to the quotation. We will sign the agreement tomorrow. Finally, we can focus on our work for a short while . But we will be eagerly waiting for the 3D pics I guess.

Hi,

Nice to see that you are progressing well with your new house reno..... ........congrates and welcome along this rt-blog!

Cheers!

[Chinchye 0]

Hi,

Tampiness is a nice place.. lots of good food, cinema, and shopping centres.. haha..

Congrats on finalising ur ID. Looking forward to ur house photos.. =)

[lihsin 0]

Thanks. My second appointment is estimated to be one week after CNY and I was told that the whole reno process will take 8 to 10 weeks. So I will only get the renovated house in late April or even May next year. It will be another 5 to 6 months of waiting .

[SGK 0]

Hi all,

"lihsin" will change to "SGK" from now on. "lihsin" is my WTB's userid as I experienced some difficulties when I registered earlier. I have now managed to create a new account using a new email address and so I will post using my own account from now on

Edited November 17, 2009 by SGK

[SGK 0]

We signed our reno contract with Earnest Interiors today. After Kennedy's modification, the quotation still exceeded our revised budget of 60k by more than $500. After some discussion with my WTB, we decided to call his boss James directly to ask for a further discount. This is the 3rd discount that we ask for. James was very accomodating and he promised us that he would discuss with Kennedy again. 2 hours later, he called to tell us that he will round the final sum to 60k, which is the amount that we are prepared to pay. So we signed the contract

I am not sure if 60k is a reasonable price or not. But as some bloggers here have pointed out, the most important thing is the reno process must be smooth and happy. We believe we have made the correct choice